The Winter of Our Discontent

We reach that peculiar period of time between the election of a new president and the end of the term of the old one. Historically this is a time to reflect upon the achievements of the the now-ending administration and the hope and optimism associated with the new. Of course there can't be any achievements to celebrate from the "eight long years of suffering" under George W. Bush (aka Spawn of the Devil). At least none that the mainstream media will share with us. Therefore I will make a weak attempt to chronicle some of those.

As you will recall W. had to defend his win of the presidency through court. Yes, boys and girls, he WON the presidency and Al Gore tried to steal it from him. This cast a pall over the victory and ate up several weeks of the transition period. Nonetheless he took office on January 20, 2001 and set out his agenda in the first State of the Union speech. It was ambitious and bold but, considering his party controlled the congress, not out of reach. Shortly thereafter he was faced with a defining moment in his Presidency that was the source of criticism to this day. He made the decision to deny federal funding for stem cell research. The pro lifers applauded him the abortionists and scientists sucking on the federal tit wailed. Agree or not he had drawn a line in the sand that still has not been crossed. Of course Obama will rescind this order as soon as he is inaugurated.

The next thing to come along in 2001 was the terrorists attack on New York and Washington. By the time that day in September was over almost 3,000 Americans were dead and the rest of us got the message. The leadership W. displayed during that difficult period was inspiring to most Americans. He had overwhelming support for going after those that perpetrated these attacks and was granted carte blache in prosecuting the War on Terrorism. What most of us forget is that just a few weeks after the attacks we had the anthrax mailings and scare. Many resources were directed at this and our national psyche took another hit.

A byproduct of these events was that our economy took a major hit. Trading was suspended on the stock exchanges several days and dropped like a rock for a while. Most industries took significant losses and it looked like we were headed for a recession. But we survived and saw the stock market double over the next six years. Major tax cuts served to stimulate the economy and we saw significant job growth over the same period. W should get credit for this recovery if he is to be blamed for the mess we are currently in. The reality is that being president is like the captain of a ship; he can direct it but if the crew isn't working together he is going to have trouble getting the ship where he wants it to go. Throw in the turbulent seas and you get the picture.

The Iraq War was the next thing to come along and it started off much like the Afgan War. We kicked ass and took names. We entered the war with overwhelming support for military action and everyone expected us to get the job done quickly. Everyone except W and he kept telling us that the War on Terror was going to take a long time. We dug Saddam out of a hole and the Iraqi kangaroo court tried and executed him. It was a beautiful thing! But something went wrong because the Iraqis were not prepared to govern themselves. The fact that they had lived under Saddam's tyranny for over 30 years meant they were out of practice. So our liberating troops found themselves between the factions in Iraq that had been suppressed over the years by Saddam. Throw in there Al Qaeda moving into Iraq and you have no choice but to stay and protect the fledgling government from failing before it has a chance to establish itself.

As our involvement in Iraq approached the four year mark the discontent began to grow, coinciding with the 2008 presidential campaign. Bin Laden had correctly judged the American people as not having the stomach for a protracted battle and the public outcry was to get out of Iraq as soon as possible. The Democrats took up the banner, most of which voted to take out Saddam. This had gone on too long and the American public had lost interest. Everyone running for office could have handled the war better than Bush, we never should have gone in there, or some such drivel beat us over the head. Armchair quarterbacks are a dime a dozen. The bottom line is that the world is a better place without the likes of Saddam Hussein, thousands of more lives were saved by his overthrow, Al Qaeda suffered yet another loss by trying to take us on in Iraq, and the world is safer.

This brings us to current times and we see the liberal champion, Obama, moving to the center. Most of his cabinet and inner circle are retreads from the Clinton administration. He is backing off most of the promises he made and will probably be much more cautious about anything he initiates. This will result in grumblings from the left about how they were betrayed. And around it goes and goes..........